As many as 200,000 turned out to greet Nelson Mandela in New York City on June 22, 1990, 130 days after his release from 27 years of captivity in a South African prison.

I bought a T-shirt outside Yankee Stadium, where Mandela told thousands of admirers: ''The people of New York, we admire you, we respect you and, above all, we love you," Here is a detail from the shirt, including the date.I'm thrilled to have what is now a piece of history, related to one of the true genuine heroes of the 20th century.

The New York Times reported the next day that Yankee Stadium rocked with a chant of ''Amandla! Amandla!'' the Zulu word for power, "Many in the crowd thought the word meant freedom or victory, but in the enthusiasm, it really did not seem to matter."